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The 1961 Statesville Owls team photo. Nine surviving players reunited fifty years later on the same field.

It all began when the Los Angeles Angels, one of two American League expansion teams in 1961, desperately needed minor league affiliates.

Roland Hemond, the Angels’ newly appointed farm and scouting director, had only three months to find affiliates. He signed working agreements with a Triple-A team in Dallas-Ft. Worth that was already affiliated with the Phillies, and with a Class D team in Statesville, North Carolina whose players were mostly signed independently.

The Statesville Owls were part of the Western Carolina League, a circuit created to feed talent into the Contintental League, a proposed third major league. But when the Continental League folded — in part because the A.L. expanded into the Los Angeles market — the WCL scrambled to find its own talent.

“Affiliation” had a much looser connotation in 1961. A minor league club could still sign, trade and release its own players. But they could also get players from an affiliated major league club. Some got them from more than one.

The 1961 Owls had indy players from North Carolina and across the South, but added Angels players to their roster as soon as they arrived. Most Angels were from Southern California, although a few came from Florida and elsewhere. One player, Gaetan Boudreau, came from Quebec and spoke very little English.

Despite their disparate backgrounds, and the Jim Crow culture that still permeated the Southern culture, the team became a true band of brothers. White, black, Western, Southern or Québécois. It didn’t matter.

Three went on to major league careers. The rest went on to other lives, their playing careers forgotten except for the arcane world of minor league historical archives, and in their own memories.

On June 17 and 18, the city of Statesville hosted a reunion of nine surviving Owls. The attendees were Dave Best, George Bryson, Walter Darton, Alan Flitcraft, Jerry Fox, Bob Lucas, Vito Porta, Richard Simpson, and Ed Thomas. Fox and Thomas, two of the 1961 indy players, still live in Statesville and helped organize the reunion.

The Owls were hosted by a new college team that has adopted the original name. The new Statesville Owls are part of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League. The team set up a tent at a Friday night street fair where the players signed autographs on photos created from 1961 images. Later that evening, the 1961 Owls and invited guests gathered at a local restaurant for dinner and storytelling.

The next day, the players were treated to a barbecue at Jerry Fox’s farm. The players posed for a “Field of Dreams” photo in the corn field. They also called former teammate Jack Hiatt, recently retired as the San Francisco Giants’ farm director but still on the road as a special assignment scout.

And then it was on to their onetime home field.

The park looks much different than 1961. It’s used today as the home field not just for the college Owls but also Statesville High School. It’s in much better condition than 1961. The old infield was all dirt! The current infield is grass. One player joked that in 1961 they’d have been better off playing in the street than on that old rock-strewn infield.

The college Owls scheduled a fan fest before the doubleheader, but a thunderstorm passed through and the tents were gone with the wind, which seemed to affect attendance.

George Bryson, Alan Flitcraft and Vito Porta threw out the first pitches before the first game. Flitcraft went down to the bullpen to throw beforehand. He threw the first Angels’ organizational no-hitter on this field on August 26, 1961. When it came time to throw the first pitch, Alan threw a perfect strike.

Between games, the 1961 Owls were honored on the field with a City of Statesville proclamation, and a congratulatory statement from today’s Angels director of Player Development Abe Flores.

Five more alumni threw out the first pitch before the second game — Ed Thomas, Jerry Fox, Richard Simpson, Dave Best and George Bryson.

After the ceremony, they sat behind the third base dugout in an area set aside for them.

I filmed the weekend’s events. The, um, family-friendly version is available to watch online. Click here to watch the reunion video. Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection required. Photos from the weekend are below.

The Statesville Record & Landmarkpublished a June 19 article about the reunion. In the print edition, the article was on Page 1 with a color photo of Flitcraft’s bullpen.

To put this event in perspective, it would be the equivalent of the 2011 Orem Owlz having a reunion in 2061. It’s a tribute to their camaraderie that the 1961 Owls were willing to return to this town of 27,000 people just so they could reunite their band of brothers and walk on that field one more time.

On a personal note … This ended my four-year odyssey to uncover the history of the Angels’ first minor league team. I walked on that field, met those players, and became one of them when they asked me to autograph their first-pitch baseballs. I have new friends in Statesville simply because we share a common love for baseball.

Fifty years later, the 1961 Statesville Owls are still a family.

At the street fair … Left to right — Walter Darton, Alan Flitcraft and Ed Thomas.

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know that an ongoing project has been to reunite the 1961 Statesville Owls, one of two minor league teams the Angels had in their inaugural season. Statesville, North Carolina was Class D, a rough equivalent to today’s Low Class-A. The other affiliate was the Triple-A Dalls-Ft. Worth Rangers, an affiliation shared with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Circumstances required me to bow out, so the locals took over planning, led by the new Southern Collegiate Baseball League Statesville Owls. They’ve arranged for a two-day celebration of the 1961 Owls, starting with a street concert in downtown Statesville the evening of June 17. The next day, as part of their FanFest, the Owls will play a doubleheader and honor the alumni. The first pitch in each game will be thrown out by the alumni, and between games they’ll be honored with a ceremony.

I didn’t think I’d be able to make it, but circumstances have changed so I’ll be heading north next week to record the events for posting on FutureAngels.com and this blog.

Statesville, North Carolina baseball archivist Steve Hill sent me the below images from his collection that show the Statesville Stadium circa 1962. This would have been the year after the Angels had their inaugural Class D baseball team in Statesville.

These are not photos of the Angels players. Steve believes that some or all may be of the Statesville High School team. The Owls used the high school’s field. It’s still the high school field today except the grandstands are gone.

The photos give us a much better look at what the stadium structure itself looked like in the Angels’ era.

When I visited Statesville last month, I brought home a copy of home movie footage filmed in 1961 by the family of Janet Fox, who is the wife of Owls’ player Jerry Fox. Click here to watch the video. Because the original film was 8mm, there’s no sound, but it’s our first (and so far only) look at the 1961 Owls in color.

Statesville baseball historian Steve Hill had in his collection the above photo of 1961 Statesville Owls, which I’d never seen before. The only common theme we could deduce was that each of the seven players was under contract to the Angels. Manager George Wilson was hired independently by the Owls.

Of those shown in the photo, four are still with us — Jack Hiatt, Dick Simpson, Paul Mosley and George Bryson. I’ve asked them if they recall when and why this group photo was taken.

From past research, we have some clues as to when it was shot.

Hiatt, Simpson, Conrad and Cookus were the first four Angels properties assigned to Statesville, arriving in mid-April. But Mosley and Bryson didn’t arrive until near the end of June.

Missing from the photo are three Florida players signed in mid-June — infielders Dave Best and Bobby Lucas, and pitcher Alan Flitcraft. Also missing is Walt Darton, the ace pitcher from L.A. whose career was ended by an elbow injury suffered during a brawl with Lexington on May 31. All three were with the team through the end of the season.

So we know it was taken no earlier than late June, but if it’s supposed to be only Angels players then why were the three Florida players excluded?

One explanation might be that all seven are from California — which could imply that a Florida-only photo might be around somewhere.

The field is currently used by the Statesville High School baseball team. They were practicing just off-camera to the right of the image. A couple of the players came over to introduce themselves, and meet Ed and Jerry who were wearing Angels gear given them last September at the reunion we held at Tempe Diablo. I think the kids probably thought they were scouts or somesuch, but they were very respectful and had lots of questions.

I’m home from Statesville, with lots of Angels minor league history in tow.

Ed Thomas and Jerry Fox were two independent players signed locally by the Owls in 1961. Thomas was signed after the season by the Angels and spent two seasons in Triple-A. Fox retired from baseball and went back to real life.

Jerry’s wife Janet loaned me a home movie her family made that year of the Owls. It runs only about 1 ½ minutes, but it’s the only known footage of the original Angels’ minor league team.

Ed Thomas and Jerry Fox were two independent players for the Statesville Owls in 1961. They were teammates of the Angels minor leaguers sent to Statesville from California, Florida and even from Canada. Thomas was signed by the Angels at season’s end and spent two years in Triple-A as a teammate of such future Angels as Jim Fregosi, Bo Belinsky, Dean Chance, Tom Satriano, Bobby Knoop and more.

Ed and Jerry took me to the home of Steve Hill, a local baseball collector. Steve has a wealth of Statesville and other baseball history in his home. In the above photo, behind us is a display he created of Statesville baseball history going back to 1939, when Statesville High School Stadium was built. Click here to view photos of Statesville Stadium circa 1961.

Steve has many photos in his collection I haven’t seen before, among them 8x10s of Jack Hiatt and Dick Simpson in Angels uniforms. Hiatt and Simpson, along with Dick Wantz, were the three 1961 Owls who went on to play in the majors.

My wife and I walked around downtown Statesville this morning shooting photos which I will post in a couple days. These are more for the alumni we reunited last year, so they can see what the town looks like today.

Ed and Jerry took me this afternoon to the Statesville High School ballpark, which is the site of the 1961 stadium. Not much remains from 49 years ago, and improvements are being added to prepare for a new college league that will play here this summer. We met up with Bill Moose, a history professor at Statesville’s Mitchell College who is also a baseball historian. I recorded a video interview with the three, which I’ll post in a couple days when I return home. We were standing on the infield just in front of the pitcher’s mound, the site of a legendary brawl on May 31 against rival Lexington. Click here to read more about the Lexington brawl.

Jerry’s wife loaned me footage of a home movie her family shot in 1961 of a Statesville game. It’s only about a minute, but so far as I know this is the only known film of the 1961 Owls — and it’s in color. I’ll post online later this week as well.

One thing’s for sure — a lot of people in this town are thirsting for the return of professional baseball. The wood-bat college league this summer isn’t quite there, but it’s a big step in the right direction. The proposed 50th anniversary reunion next year in Statesville should be another big step.

The Angels were here for only one year, but it was the Angels’ first year and remembered fondly by both players and fans who were here.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I’ve been researching the early history of the Angels’ minor leagues.

The Angels had only two minor league teams in their 1961 inaugural season, the Triple-A Dallas-Ft. Worth Rangers and the Class D Western Carolina League’s Statesville Owls.

I’ve tracked down quite a bit of Statesville history, and last September we staged a reunion of eight surviving Statesville players at the Angels’ minor league complex in Tempe, Arizona.

My wife and I moved to Florida last summer, which put me in driving range of Statesville. We made the drive this weekend, and arrived this afternoon.

It’s raining right now, so I won’t get over to the field until Monday or Tuesday. The field still exists. It’s the home field for Statesville High School. The wooden stands, though, are long gone.

Two Statesville alumni, Ed Thomas and Jerry Fox, were independent players who lived locally. The Angels signed Thomas after the 1961 season, while Fox retired from baseball and went back to real life. I hope to take Ed and Jerry over to the field and videotape an interview that I’ll post on FutureAngels.com in the next few days.

I’ll be shooting photos of course, not just the field but also the town. The alumni have asked a lot of questions about how the town looks today. Much of it looks old enough to have been around in 1961, but other buildings are fairly new.

Wrigley Field was torn down in the 1960s, the Dallas ballpark has also passed into history, but the Statesville field remains as the only surviving remnant of 1961. Dick Wantz, Dick Simpson and Jack Hiatt all began their professional careers on this field, and eventually played in the majors for the Angels. I’m not much for sentimentality, but when I walk on that field this week I’ll be very aware that I’m where the Angels’ future began.

Paul Mosley with the Double-A El Paso Sun Kings in 1965 or 1966. Note the El Paso cap had a halo atop the crown as did the Angels’ cap of that era.

Paul Mosley was a pitcher in the Angels’ minor leagues from 1961 through 1966. He played at nearly every level in the system, starting with Class D Statesville in the Angels’ inaugural 1961 season. He passed through Quad Cities, San Jose, Tri-City, and El Paso, as well as attending the minor league spring training camps.

When my wife and I drove cross-country last May to move from California to Florida, Paul and his wife Betty Jo were gracious enough to let us stay overnight at their home near Houston. Paul loaned me the scrapbook he kept during his career; it’s helped to unearth much of the buried early history of the Angels’ minor leagues.

In 1963, minor league baseball restructured its classifications. Class B, Class C and Class D disappeared. The Angels had affiliates that year in Tri-City (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland in Washington state), San Jose and Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois). All three were reclassified as Class A. Mosley’s career took him through Quad Cities in 1962, San Jose in 1963 and Tri-City in 1964, which tells us how the three were prioritized within the organization. Before 1963, Quad Cities was Class D, San Jose was Class C and Tri-City was Class B. So now it makes sense.

Paul Mosley (right) at San Jose in 1963. Manager Red Marion (center) took the Bees to the California League title in 1962, the first time any Angels team won a pennant.

Paul’s scrapbook also helped me figure out a lot about where minor league spring training was based. It’s commonly known that the parent club’s camp was in Palm Springs. That site, the former Palm Springs Polo Grounds, was too small to host 100+ minor leaguers, so the Angels had to find other sites for the future Angels.

It was still common in the early 1960s for Triple-A affiliates to hold their camps separate from their parent clubs. An affiliation was far looser than today’s meaning. Triple-A teams were free to sign, trade and release their own players. “Affiliation” simply meant they got some players from a major league operation, otherwise they were as independent as today’s indy leagues.

The Rangers dumped the Angels for the Twins in 1963, so they left California and held camp in Florida. The Islanders, now the only Angels’ Triple-A team, camped at Amerige for 1963 while again everyone else went to La Palma Park.

Mosley’s scrapbook picks up the story in 1964.

A poor condition pocket schedule for the 1964 Hawaii Islanders spring training schedule at South Jackson Park in Indio. The back shows games scheduled against the various Angels minor league squads as well as the parent club and local colleges.

The Islanders held their 1964 camp at South Jackson Park in Indio. The above pocket schedule was in Paul’s scrapbook. It was once glued to a page, but I found it torn and loose. The front shows where they played. The back shows a schedule that included the Angels’ other minor league affiliates, the parent club, and games against college teams from Cal Poly Pomona and USC.

I also found a photo of Paul in an Islanders uniform. He was posing with two others.

In the above photo, Paul is on the left, and minor league infielder Charlie Strange is on the right. The man in the middle is actor Henry Kulky, perhaps best known for a role on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Kulky brought the oversized props; no idea where he got them. The photo shows you what the Islanders’ uniforms looked like.

Most fans recall the Angels had a presence in Holtville for many years. That began in 1966, but before the complex was complete they spent an interim spring in 1965 split between El Centro and Brawley.

The Angels bought the Triple-A Seattle Rainiers franchise in the Pacific Coast League and renamed it the Seattle Angels. (Hawaii switched their affiliation to the Washington Senators.) This photo from the El Centro newspaper shows the Seattle team at Stark Field in El Centro sometime around early March 1965:

The 1965 Seattle Angels at El Centro’s Stark Field.

An article in the El Centro paper noted that Seattle manager Bob Lemon arrived late in El Centro, “upon his return from a 14-game tour of Mexico with half of the split Angel squad.” Yikes! That would never happen today.

The scrapbook also had a copy of a 1965 Angels minor league spring training program, a rather unique item:

Click on the image to view an Adobe Acrobat version of the program. Acrobat Reader required.

One side of this folded program is still glued to the scrapbook, so I couldn’t remove it, but I scanned the rest and used Adobe PhotoShop to reassemble it into a digital document. Click on the above image to download the file. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the document.

Games and workouts were split between Stark Field in El Centro and Lions Field in Brawley. At the bottom of the program’s front page it states in small print, “Other clubs will have extensive workouts daily, and games before or after various instructional drills. Fans are welcome.” The schedule shows that the parent club came down from Palm Springs to play the Triple-A Seattle squad in two games at Brawley and two games at El Centro.

Mosley spent his last two seasons with the Double-A El Paso Sun Kings in the Double-A Texas League. Many of his contemporaries went on to the big leagues. One was Clyde Wright. I found a clipping he saved of a report in the El Paso paper about Wright’s first major league win:

Other names you might recognize include Tom Burgmeier, Jay Johnstone, Winston Llenas, Rudy May, Marty Pattin, and Jim Spencer. Another was John Olerud, the father of the future Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners first baseman by the same name.

I also found this clip reporting on a 1965 game between the Sun Kings and the Tulsa Oilers:

It appears that the 1965 El Paso caps had an “EP” on them, but when I look at the team photos for 1965 and 1966 it’s just an “E” as in the photo of Paul at the top of this column. It’s neat, though, to see the halo on the crown of the cap. I wish the Angels would bring that back, even if just for an alternate jersey.

The El Paso manager was Chuck Tanner, who later went on to fame as the manager of the world champion 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. The Angels had some serious managing talent in the system. Triple-A manager Bob Lemon managed the New York Yankees to a World Series, and is now in the Hall of Fame. So is Joe Gordon, who was a minor league hitting instructor, manager and scout for the Angels in the 1960s.

Mosley was sold after the 1966 season to the Kansas City Athletics. He received this letter from the A’s assistant general manager:

Click on the image to view an Adober Acrobat version of the letter.

Paul told me that he decided to retire rather than move on to another organization.

In April 2007, a colleague of Paul’s found articles I’d written about the Statesville Owls and contacted me to let me know his buddy was one of the players. I recorded an interview with Paul; click here to listen to the interview. (Windows Media Player required.). He was the first Owls player I found. Since then, we’ve tracked down about ten more, and held a reunion last September. More reunions of the 1960s Angels minor leaguers are being planned.

Thanks to Paul, and his colleague, we found the first one. But he won’t be the last.

Steve Hill, the collector who sent along the photos of Statesville Stadium, e-mailed the below scan of a March 1961 letter sent by Angels farm director Roland Hemond.

George Trautman was the president of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues from 1947 until his death in 1963.

The Angels had two minor league affiliates in 1961 — a Triple-A team in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and a Class D team in Statesville.

The letter indicates a $3,000 check was being sent to the NAPBL to cover $1,500 owed D-FW for their working agreement, and another $1,500 owed D-FW for spring training costs.

I can understand the spring training costs, because back then Dallas-Ft. Worth held its own independent spring training. Their 1961 spring training camp was in Riverside, as I documented in December 2008. Any Statesville players under contract probably went to Riverside before reporting to Statesville.

Why Statesville would owe D-FW $1,500 for a working agreement is beyond me. I’ve sent the document to Roland. Perhaps he can explain.

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